Since 1977, we read the lore after seeing Star Wars the
first time and lived on the fan fiction created by writers. Fan fiction and
extended universe that now has been lost due to Disney wanting to have nothing
to do with it. But this is not a review of what Disney did wrong or right, this
is about a complete picture. So, for this review of Rogue One I would like to
start at the end instead of the beginning. I can’t take credit for this next
line, Kevin Smith on his show ‘FatMan and Batman’ said it best: “The last 90
seconds reestablish the iconic villain to his rightful place in bad movie
villain history.” Ladies and Gentlemen, Darth Vader has returned.
Something else Kevin said that sticks in my mind as the
movie ended tonight. If you took the credits off the very end and pasted it to
the beginning of Star Wars, Episode IV ‘A New Hope’ it would be seamless. At
the very end I think we get the biggest treats as die hard fans of the genre. We
get to see everything that’s been talked about in how Vader is this bad ass
Jedi/Sith that the galaxy fears and more importantly WHY the galaxy fears him.
And we get to see a CGI version of Carrie Fisher as the Corellian Blockage
runner jets away in the nick of time holding the Death Star plans.
Disney really went all out on this venture and I for one
applaud them for that. After having the lore I grew up with stripped away and
considered ‘Legends’ by the new owners of the ‘Star Wars’ name, Rogue One is a
much needed film to make amends with the Fan Base. I really hope they do this
again. I hope they fill in more gaps in the story and go to as much detail in
the other stories as they did with Rogue One. From the iconic switches, scenes,
ships and Stormtrooper armor. To the plans themselves that Princess Leia will
place into R2, nothing was spared in bringing this story to life AND making it
believable.
Personally, I caught several nods to the extended universe
in this movie. And even though they only touched on it, we see the ‘Guardian of
the Whills’ mentioned. A race of aliens that were bound to the Force, that
actually heard it and recorded what the Force would tell them. It is mentioned
by George Lucas when he originally wrote Star Wars and the Clone Wars cartoon
pay homage to this several times by referencing it in several stories. Chirrut
Imwe, played by Donnie Yen is one of the Guardians introduced in the story and
though we don’t see him with a lightsaber, we see him use his ability in the
Force to ‘see’ even though his character is blind.
This was much needed shot in the arm after the disaster that
was ‘The Force Awakens’. If you read my last review you will note that I said
Force Awakens is NOT my generations Star Wars. Force Awakens was written for a
whole new fan base using the story from my era and turning it on its head to
reset the genre. If Rogue One is any indication of Hollywood and box office
interest in Star Wars I believe they will do many more films from my
generation’s Star Wars and leave The Force Awakens to the noobs of today.
The story was powerful, gripping. It was more like a war
movie than a Star Wars film. It showed the true side of the Rebellion, where we
grew up seeing the fight for Galactic Survival through the eyes of Luke
Skywalker, farm-boy turned Jedi, we now see the actual people who made the
wheels turn. People like Red and Gold leader, who make a cameo in this film and
who will go on to sacrifice themselves in ‘A New Hope’. The writers do a great
job of making the audience invest themselves in these characters as well as the
main cast, so that even going in and knowing that everyone AND I MEAN EVERYONE,
is going to die, you still cannot pull your eyes away.
The story of Galen Orso the prime architect of the Death
Star is the focus of the film and the situation his daughter finds herself in
later in life as her father reaches out to her to help stop the weapon he
created. Many jokes were told my whole life as to WHY the Death Star, this
massive superweapon, was destroyed by one fighter firing a Proton Torpedo down
a small thermal exhaust port was the talk of many a coffee room conversation.
(Yes, that’s what us Star Wars geeks sit around and talk about). The writers
keyed in on that and even that little tidbit was explained. Galen created that
flaw so that he could have a way to provide the Rebellion a means to destroy
what he created.
The primary focus of this story is ‘Hope’. And it fits
perfectly into ‘A New Hope’. Even though all the people who we cheered and then
cried for die in their mission to retrieve those plans, you do get the sense
that something is on the horizon, that ‘Hope’ is coming and you are ready to
see how it turns out. For us fans, we already know. This movie did so much for
me in that regard. It restored my faith that Star Wars may possibly be in good
hands now. If movies like this are going to start coming out of Disney I may
have to stick around, even though I am presently on my last days playing The
Old Republic and ending my own story that I have written for the past six
years.
There were many nods to the fans in this movie, but nothing
in your face or as blatant as ‘The Force Awakens’. You even get to see the two
that confront Luke and Obi Wan in the cantina on Mos Eisley. Who you know in a
few weeks of this movies time line are going to have the run in that will
change both their lives. We get to see ‘Red 5’ as he explodes over Scarif in
retrieving the Death Star plans, which sets up Luke to become the next ‘Red 5’
of Rogue Squadron. We see a flash of Bail Organa and again thank the writers
and directors for bringing Jimmy Smits back to reprise his role as Bail. The
actress who had a brief cameo in Revenge of the Sith reprises her role as Mon
Mothma.
I was giddy like a school girl on several parts. I love that
Mon Mothma asks Bail about his ‘friend’ in the desert. And with the mission to
retrieve the plans underway, he looks at her and says. ‘I will contact him.’
Mon Mothma looks at him and says, ‘Only send someone you can trust.’ That was
Leia’s mission, to get to Obi Wan, get him the Death Star plans and deliver
them and Obi Wan to the Rebellion. The time is now and the stakes are that high
that Leia must do this and Rogue One does an excellent job of portraying that
feeling throughout. This is it. It’s all or nothing. The superweapon is online
and the Rebellion must act now. It is time for Obi Wan to come out of hiding.
Attachment was something I fought in this movie. Going in I
swore I was going to watch this with an observer’s eye. But as the Death Star
is ordered to fire on Scarif and kill everyone on the surface I couldn’t help
but sob seeing Jen sitting by the beach holding her compatriot as the blast
wave came toward her.
Peter Cushing, who was Grand Moff Tarkin in the original
Star Wars died in 1994. I heard a rumor going in that they were going to put
him in the movie and I thought, ‘Well, we will see him from behind.’ It will be
some actor who looks like Cushing from a distance and he will have limited
screen time. I was dead wrong. Not only did they resurrect Cushing to reprise
his role with the magic of CGI, HE WAS A MAJOR CHARACTER. CGI has come a long
way, I am a believer. What does this say about the future of movies and not
just Star Wars? It says that an actor who died many years ago can be
resurrected to play a role in a series he or she was part of. That an actor
digitally rendered can actually WIN an Oscar for that role. This could turn
some heads in Hollywood, they should definitely take notice.
Last, but not least Vader. Up till the end, the Guardian of
the Whills is the closest we have seen to someone use a lightsaber. Chirrut
Imwe fights Stormtroopers with a stick, but you know the lightsaber is coming
because we have already seen Vader. I can’t say enough about this. For years he
haunted my nightmares with all of the lore and extended universe that I read.
From, ‘Splinter of a Mind’s Eye’ to ‘Shadow’s of the Empire’ this movie
definitely did him justice in showing why he is the baddest villain in the
galaxy. This was not like the blocky scene where Darth Vader (David Prowse) is
fighting Obi Wan (Alec Guiness) in the original Star Wars. This is a full on,
full blown Sith fest as Vader makes his way from one end of the hall to the
other after he lights up his crimson blade. The plans are literally being
passed from one Rebellion Trooper to another as Vader makes his way toward
them. In the last scene we see him literally standing out in space watching as
Leia’s Blockade Runner skirts away. You forget that when we first see him in
the movie, we see the scarred and tattered form that is Anakin Skywalker drain
from a Bacta bath and start to don his armor. Kudos also for showing Vader’s
tower. This is another nod to the fans. If you remember from other fan fiction
and stories written by other authors, Vader’s Tower is his private refuge. He
has several of them, the most famous on Coruscant as detailed in ‘Shadow’s of
the Empire’
There were so many niceties in this movie I can’t even begin
to list them all. It was overwhelming, coming from a fan of the original movie
that saw it in a theater at 5 years old and I had high expectations. Rogue One
delivers and it delivers big time. Sitting there I felt smothered in it all, I
felt like I was five years old again, I felt like the first time I saw ‘Empire
Strikes Back’ later on and got my first look at an AT-AT. The nuance that what we know
IS real, that what we know is coming and why this movie has such a desperate
feel is very, very real for me. Even now as I write this I am overcome with
emotion of memories of my childhood. THIS IS my generations Star Wars, this is
what I have written about in my own stories, this is the reality I have always
striven for in the Star Wars universe. Heroes die, but the cause is forever….
A film triumph, a marvel of modern engineering. This Star
Wars movie is worth seeing again and even three or four times. This is a movie
made for all of us fans. Thank you, Disney….